Alabama, Virginia Tech Get At Least $2.3M For Chick-Fil-A Kickoff

The Chick-fil-A Kickoff Saturday at Georgia Dome "will pay Alabama and Virginia Tech at least" $2.3M, an "increase of more than $200,000 for each school over last season's inaugural game between Alabama and Clemson," according to Michael Smith of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. Both schools "sold their allotment of 31,200 tickets each, and a sellout crowd of 70,000-plus is expected." The increase in per-team payout is the "result of a $5 average increase in ticket prices and a new sponsorship arrangement with the game's title sponsor." StubHub indicated that tickets to the game, "which never were available for public sale because of the demand from Virginia Tech and Alabama, are moving swiftly on the secondary market as well." The game currently is the "highest grossing of the college football season, with tickets selling for an average price of $253." Saturday's Oklahoma-BYU game at Cowboys Stadium is second in demand, with tickets to that game "selling for an average price of $190." The September 12 USC-Ohio State game at Ohio Stadium is the highest price game, with tickets "going for an average of $534" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 8/31 issue).

BIG DRAW: In Atlanta, Mark Bradley wrote "plunk a big-time college game under the off-white roof" at the Georgia Dome and "see how many empty seats you espy." The SEC championship is an "automatic sellout," along with the Chick-fil-A Bowl and Chick-fil-A Kickoff, which this year "comes on a weekend when the Braves are home and NASCAR is running at Atlanta Motor Speedway." Bradley: "I've been around this nation of ours, and I can tell you there's no other major city ... that behaves as we do on autumn Saturdays. Simply put, we care more about college football than we do about anything else" (AJC.com, 8/31).